The Accessibility issues in Vermintide

Ok so this is a big sore spot for me with this game, and Fatshark as a company, over the last…well over the last 3 years or however long its been since vermintide 2 came out

There’s a complete lack of accessibility options for people with colorblindness, hearing impairment or even people prone to motion sickness.

There’s no colourblind mode (frankly I don’t even expect one because we’re too far along now in the game’s life cycle) but there’s zero accessibility options currently for the hearing impaired DESPITE the existence of multiple mods on the workshop that go a long way to helping with that issue. Motion sickness is a big concern to the point where honestly I find it a little embarrassing that a mod needed to be made to remove wobble rather than it just being a default option from release. I don’t want to appear ungrateful or sour when we just got a fun little update but it really boggles my mind that we keep getting these minor content drops, and we’ll be getting larger upcoming ones such as chaos wastes whenever it releases but we can’t get basic accessibility options which exist in just about every game on the market.

There are mods right there in the workshop that show accessibility is very very doable. If the concern is people may find a way to exploit these mods then please PLEASE make your own version in-house. The audio in vermintide is broken enough for those of us with perfectly good hearing, I don’t want to imagine how irritating it must be for those without.

I love the game and Fatshark as a company but when it comes to accessibility you guys really drop the ball and it’s rather disappointing to say the least. I’ve defended the content droughts, I’ve defended buggy patches and/or poorly received content but I really can’t defend this. Can we please have something done about this in the near future? Even something as simple as a “we’re working on it” will suffice, I’ll take anything at this point.

16 Likes

Yep agreed. They should either approve those mods or just put them in the official game. To be honest it should be in the official game, players shouldn’t have to get mods to do such basic things in a video game. it should be a basic setting.

Just touching upon the hearing impaired part; i would use it probably, even if i’m not hearing impaired (although sometimes i wonder when playing this game). I do kind of also see the balance issue of this, but i think the positives would be better then the negatives in this case, but its something to consider.

Just a side not on this, offtopic. But i would honestly want an honest answer, not a pr answer. not “we are looking into it” and then everyone is getting their hopes up, being annoyed when its still not released in 2 years etc.

3 Likes

yeah I’d probably use it too because audio quality in this game is abysmal; specials and hordes being 100% silent among other things is a pretty regular occurrence for both myself and a large swathe (honestly, probably the majority) of players.

I get the balancing concerns to an extent but there’s a mod on the workshop that is very very balanced imo having tested it. If Fatshark still aren’t ok with that then they should just make their own with a lower range or something. It’d better than what we get right now which is…nothing

3 Likes

Yep thats true.

I have been encountering completely silent hordes again recently, the occassional silent special and buggy assassin’s.

The “biggest” balance issue that comes to mind, would be the fact that it can show specials spawning from like very far away and making sure you know they are there, with sounds they are more quiet.

Reducing the distance would make this less of an issue, but then again, would it be helpfull for the players that really need it? I’m not sure how someone plays with no sound indication (or having trouble hearing) so i cannot judge on that part.

The other balance issue that came to mind, is knowing how many specials just spawned. Sometimes specials spawn at the same time or close together and it can be difficult to make out which ones and how many actually spawned, sometimes.
I’m not sure if this is an intended mechanic or if its a bug that sometimes 2 hook rats spawn but their sounds are synchronished and you only hear one. I would assume its a bug, so in that case the mod wouldn’t really impact it, it would make it easier though, but thats fine if we can help the players who really need it to just play the game.

I didn’t check out the mod yet, so i’m not sure how it plays. i did hear about it and saw some screenshots of it. Seems pretty good and not a big issue to the core game. Maybe fatsharks reasoning is “immersion”, but it would be weird if that would actually be their reason.

2 Likes

good lord I hope not considering we’re all running in shark hats with glowing weapons right now

2 Likes

Yeah honestly I have no sympathy for those who would oppose accessibility options because people might get a miniscule edge from special cues by subtitles etc. It betrays extremely questionable priorities wherein some would prefer a group of people be excluded from the game rather than a few randos in QP having slightly better special awareness.

There are lots of things in the game I’d like to see happen as soon as possible, but if someone were to start a petition demanding accessibility is made their top priority until fixed I would sign it in a heartbeat. It’s just not acceptable in this day and age to do this as poorly as they have.

2 Likes

Yea i don’t think you can argue against accessibility options. Maybe to a certain degree in competitive games, or up to a certain amount of “accessibility”. But for a casual game as vermintide, and asking for hearing impaired/colorblind modes and motion sickness to be added are pretty basic things. altough with motion sickness an fov slider and the no wobble mod is great already (not an expert on the subject) i would like to see it added to the main game tho and not as a mod.

I think its just not a big priority for them. Especially since it didn’t come on release, now we are pretty far in and they have all those projects going on currently.

Also if we are realistic, there is probably not alot of players that play or wanna play vermintide 2, that are hearing impaired or colorblind. i’m assuming here, but what i’m tryna say is that the encounter rate is much higher probably on things like crafting or rerolling, which automatically makes it a higher priority (depending on how fatsharks chooses their priorities ofcourse). Combine this with fatsharks releasing speed and yea.

So best bet, sanction those mods!

2 Likes

yeah that’s true

but also I would find it a little hard to swallow that a company which presents itself as progressive, such as Fatshark, also just don’t consider BASIC accessibility a “big priority”. Meanwhile with companies who probably don’t care at all would just have this stuff in the game by default because these days accessibility options are almost a given in games.

2 Likes

They probably do care about it but maybe they just have issues with management and stuff. Releasing content, devs spread across to many projects at the same time, etc.

It’s good that you bring it up though. Hope it gets added soon, as i’m pretty certain you play with someone who has those issues and could benefit from having the ‘subtitles’ (forgot the word).

Would also be great to get new sanctioned mods in general or atleast some more communication about it, like you said.

2 Likes

Even L4D had closed captions where you’d basically be told “[Boomer spawning]” or something along those lines. Base option for everybody and still players enjoyed both it and even the versus mode. So it can’t be that big of a deal, seeing how popular that series still is.

2 Likes

Agreed.

I have vision and hearing problems and even though I love this game, it is definitely harder than other games to play because of the lack of accessibility options.

I can’t even drink the beers on A Quiet Drink because it’s so blurry that I literally cannot see anything. Kind of ruins the whole fun of what the map is supposed to feel like.

2 Likes

yeah, motion sickness is also a common complaint people have for that level, wouldn’t even be hard to fix either they just…don’t fix it

I’d find it hard to believe they’re not aware of these issues either since it’s a pretty common feedback point

2 Likes

why would the mod or a feature like it need to be balanced? the sound is supposed to play correctly every time there is a sound being made. if people and fatshark is afraid that it will give an advantage to players who use it then they are just admitting that there is something wrong with the sounds in the game. even those who claim that they have never had a silent special in their games would admit they lied if they are against that mod or a feature like it.

1 Like

The closed caption mod wouldn’t show text for sounds that don’t play, as far as i’m aware.

1 Like

so there is no issue then

Well yes there is a little issue.

And those are just the ones that come to mind, i’m sure more would pop up when really thinking about this in depth.

But those would be things i would personally be fine with if it means making players that are hearing impaired have a better time playing this game.

But you cannot say that there are no balance issues or that it wouldn’t impact balance a bit.

1 Like

if the sound issues (silent backstab, silent patrol, silent specials) that many complain about is in fact working as intended then this mod would give an advantage to those who use it. if the sounds are not working as intended then this mod would be some kind of bandaid until fatshark would fix the sound issues and sound priorities priorities.

zero chance they’re working as intended

but let’s say hypothetically they were working as intended: the intent sucks, is incredibly aggravating and should change.

3 Likes

:frowning: :man_shrugging: .

As said.

Silent backstabs or silent sounds, in other words: no sound playing, then the mod wouldn’t show the text on screen.
If it did, sure, it would be a bandaid fix.

You say if the above is true, then there is no balance issue and the mod should be sanctioned.

But i tried to tell you that there would be balance issues, even with the sound playing correctly and the mod only showing played sounds.

We just have to see if the pro’s outweigh the cons, in this case it does for me. But i haven’t really thought about it in depth. The thing i tried to say and bring to everyone’s and fatsharks attention is that they should be informed there are balance concerns concerning this mod implementation. Just trying to see it from all points of view and see all possible arguments. I don’t agree there wouldn’t be any balance concerns and its maybe not as simple as ‘just implement lol’ as we think.

But i went way to deep into this particular thing. Hope you understand.

Kind of? I’m hearing impaired, and I get how it can aid the hearing, but I feel so incredibly lost and defenseless in official realm sometimes; not much hope of me clutching with an assassin or leech up as one I can’t hear, and the other relies on directional sound I don’t have. I don’t think there’s really a good solve, and basically relies on the devs deciding what is the lesser of two evils.

I’m in the mind video games are for everyone, and accessibility of any kind helps foster that.

6 Likes